I don’t know much about classical music, but I know a song can make you feel differently based on instruments used, etc etc etc. So I was just wondering: could somebody give some examples of classical music that would make you feel angry?
Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) caused a riot in the audience at its premiere performance in 1913.
I could be wrong but I believe the emotion engendered by “The Rite of Spring” was not so much anger as it was astonishment at its blatant evocation of visceral and sexual instincts.
“Mars, God of War” from Holtz’ “The Planets” has a kind of angry feel to it, but I don’t know if it would necessarily make a listener feel angry.
A lot of avant-garde, or semi-avant-garde music from the first half of the twentieth century has strong “angry” colours. I would say more “violent” than “angry” per se, though.
Other than Rite of Spring, there is also Stravinsky’s Firebird, but like I said, that’s more violent than angry. Edgar Varese also wrote fairly violent music, such as Amériques.
You might also say that there is some anger in Beethoven’s Appasionata sonata, though there’s a whole bunch of other emotions in there as well.
the opening of Mozart’s 39th symphony has been called angry, but I don’t think Mozart had that in mind. The first movement of Beethoven’s fifth symphony, which just about everyone has heard, is thought to be full of rage.
The right arrangement of Greig’s In The Hall of The Mountain King can have the desired effect, I think.
Do you mean ‘angry’ in the sense of “impassioned, revved up”, e.g. Queen’s “we will, we will rock you!” – a piece that makes you feel stirred/energized – “yo! Fuckin’ A!” ?
Or a piece that literally pisses you off?
If the former, there’s quite a few. For example, try Bach’s Toccatta and Fugue in Dm, preferably on the largest pipe organ in the universe, stereo cranked to 11. Remove small animals and breakables beforehand, please.
If the latter, I’m at a loss. The only classical pieces that pissed me off were because I hated them so badly I threw the CD on the floor and stomped on it vigorously.
Orff’s Carmina Burana has some ‘angry’ moments. I’ll guarentee that you’ve heard the introduction “O Fortuna” somewhere before.
It’s hard to tell what your talking about when you say ‘angry’ music, but if I’m thinking what I think your thinking, then here’s some other titles:
Holst - Mars: The Bringer of War
Berlioz - Symphony Fantastique, Mvt. 5: Songe d’une Nuit de Sabbat
Mozart’s Requiem (arious parts)
Berlioz’ Requiem (arious parts
Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries
Many of Beethoven’s Symphonies were quite ‘angry’ and powerful in nature. Check out the stuff listed above and tell me if that’s what you’re looking for. 
:smack: That’s “various parts” inside those brackets. Don’t ask my why they didn’t show up in my OP.
O Fortuna * from Carl Orff’s * Carmena Barana is a pretty angry piece, read the translation to the Latin poem it’s based on, the author is angrilly cursing Fate and her mistreatment of him. Prokokiev’s * Montagues and Capulets * from his ballet of Romeo and Juliet certianlly has an angry and confrontational feel to it.
I would also suggest Arnold Shoenburg’s string quartets, particularly the 3rd and 4th if you’re looking for a powerfully emotional sound. Not quite an angry sound, more of a disjointed, schizoid feeling, but quite violent sounding at times. Good stuff. He also has a piece, the name of which escapes me, which is part symphonic, part spoken word that describes an attempted Jewish escape from the Gestapo in a Polsih ghetto. It has all of the anger and fear you would expect, given the subject.
Off to Cafe Society.
DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
Try Allegro Barbaro by Béla Bartók. The loudest, most furious, violent, headbanging piano piece ever composed. I used to wail this on the piano a lot; very effective for releasing your frustrations and blind rage. :mad:
I’ll second TheFunkySpaceCowboy on the Schoenberg quartets; it’s fabulous, angry stuff, and the first thing that leapt to mind when I saw the thread title.
Also, there’s a classical guitar piece called “Capricho Arabe” by Tarrega that’s got some serious boiling going on if played correctly–look for Christopher Parkening’s recording if possible; it’s on his album In the Spanish Style.
Perhaps the beginning of Mahler’s 6th Symphony. It vaguely reminds me of Holst’s Mars, which was already mentioned.
And what about Beethoven: Rondo a capriccio “die Wut uber den verlorenen Grosschen” Op.129 = “Rage over a lost penny”?
I agree. There are heaps of works that fit into the former category; some well-known, some not. I personally recommend:
- “Battle on the Ice” from Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky
- various bits of Franz Schmidt’s Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln (“The Book of Seven Seals”) – some good raping and pillaging music there.
- “Dies Irae” from Verdi’s Requiem
And I’m with squeegee on the latter category too: there have been classical works which have made me angry because they were generally awful, because they had clear potential to be much better and weren’t, or because the works themselves were good and the performance was shit. None of which have anything to do with any inherent affect of the work.
Might I suggest http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=music&field-keywords=heavy%20classix&search-type=ss&bq=1/104-3729900-1314342
Heavy Classix. Fun, until I realized I was driving a german car while Ride of the Valkyries played. I started looking for a used cop car nearby after that, and was very careful about the bridges and overpasses I drove on.
Well, Chopin’s “Revolutionary Etude” makes me feel indignant.
Oh, just about any piece out there which uses the famous chant (or the melody) of Dies Irae tends to be either end up being really spooky or really… angry. As I mentioned before, Berlioz’ Symphony Fantastique uses this in it’s 5th Movement. There’s Verdi’s arrangement of it, Mozart’s Requiem Mass uses it (I think any Mass out there uses it?), Michael Daugherty uses it in his Metropolis Symphony (somewhere, I’m not sure because I haven’t heard the piece for ages) and it comes up all the time in the background of many a musical work. I’m sure a quick Google could give some hints as to what Dies Irae is, and where and how many times it has been used.
Krzyzstof Penderecki’s Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima .
Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet #8 .